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After riding aluminum for a very long time I decided to give carbon a try. Got my hands on the Cannondale deal that was going around sometime ago and here is my first effort at building a carbon bike, a 2009 Cannondale SuperSix Hi-Mod. By the way, I’m reluctantly posting my bike as I’m afraid of the bullets that might come my way from the CFP, but with the encouragement of Juanmoretime, here it goes.

A little bit about the build: I’ve had only two real rides on the bike, so the steerer tube will be cut once I’m sure the bars are where I want them to be. First of all, this build was done with “economics” in mind. I had decent parts on my trusty Pinarello so I decided to move all the parts over and upgrade from here as “time” (READ: money) permits. The plan is to eventually upgrade it to Record 11. I used the Campy press on BB cups instead of the threaded sleeve so as to leave the option open to switch the cranks to a set of Hollowgram SI SL in the future, again when “time” permits. The bike is shown here with my PowerTap as I took the pictures before going on a training ride.

My ride reportI had never ridden a full carbon bike before, so I was very impressed with what engineers can do with the material. First thing I noticed was the weight, very light considering is a 58cm and it has pretty much standard parts. The ride is also very impressive. The front end is very stiff and it corners as if on rails. The bike gives you the confidence to lean on corners very aggressively at high speed. When you get out of the saddle, the bike seems to respond right away. There is no loss of power from the bottom bracket and chainstays at all. The road under you feels “soft”. The only way I can compare it, is like when you ride smooth singletrack on a MTB. You feel the bumps but they don’t make the ride harsh. I’m very happy with it.

One thing that concerns me is the number of spacers you have stacked up between the top of the headtube to the stem... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think some fork manufacturers specify the maximum amount of spacers you can have if you have a carbon steerer tube...

@ Cheers!The chain catcher was easy to do and it weighs next to nothing. As for the spacers, I'm within Cannondale's recommended spacers stack guidelines. They recommend not using more than 40mm of spacers under the stem not including the cone shaped one. I'm currently at 25mm.

You’re right Sawyer, and that would be about the only component that I would change at this time. I’m considering a Deda Newton 26.0 stem to go with the bars as I don’t see a huge advantage by going to 31.8. If anything I would gain about a few grams by making that switch so I would probably keep my 26.0 bars.

If I do decide to go with 31.8, I would go with an FSA Energy T handlebar (I prefer the round bend better) and FSA OS-115 stem solely for the reason that Liquigas uses them and this is the bike they use. I’m not convinced on carbon bars just yet and considering how expensive they are you don’t really save a lot of weight as compared to aluminum bars.

@ naylor343My motto is “Go big or go home” so when I decided to go for it, I made sure it was a decent frameset. Plus the deal I got on it was hard to miss. Thanks for the compliments.

The position has been dialed in and the steerer tube has been cut. I also did some minor changes to the build. I changed the handlebar and stem combo to an FSA Energy T 44cm and an FSA OS-115 120mm. Now I'm officially in 31.8 territory. I don't think the change was necessary but it does feel a little stiffer up front, so is an improvement. However that improvement came at the price of 40 grams. Now the bike is dead on at 16 lbs (7.259g). I'm still a pound and a half lighter than my previous bike.

So, after a few months with my new bike, I came across a good deal on a Record 11s group so I decided to take the plunge and upgrade. I must say that I was perfectly happy with my Record 10s, but the 11s is definitely a welcome addition. The stuff is just so smooth, the ergonomics are excellent and having that extra gear is nice to have. While on this “remodeling” trip, I decided to upgrade the seatpost for a lighter and stiffer Alpha Q Pro Lite (15g savings). I also upgraded the cages from the Elite Patao carbon to the lighter Bontrager Race X Lite carbon saving about 12g in the process. Since I was on a weight reducing binge, I went ahead and upgrade my stem and handlebar combo. I went from the good looking FSA OS 115 stem and FSA Energy T handlebar to the lighter 3T ARX Team stem (13g lighter) and Zipp SLC2 TB handlebar (79g lighter). I was very skeptical about the carbon handlebars, but after talking with a couple of friends who race I decided to give it a shot. Those Zipp bars are sure stiff and smooth riding. All in all, my bike is down to 7,220g (15.92 lbs) which I think is a pretty good weight considering this is a “real men’s bike” at 58cm.